God Bless America

We voted! I often feel a bit awed when marking my ballot (‘With the stroke of a pen, we, mere citizens, become We the People’ as Jill Lepore wrote in the New Yorker last week), but this year it seemed like even more of a privilege than in the past. I think because the campaign and candidates are given so much time and attention here but those doing the talking have no actual say in the whole affair.

As a side note, we are still registered to vote in Michigan, and on our ballot we could vote on permitting human embryo stem cell research, legalizing medical marijuana and allowing beer and wine to be sold on Sundays in our county (it's not currently). All kinds of interesting stuff, but is there not something a bit jarring about those last two choices existing side by side? It takes all kinds... and perhaps nowhere more so than in the USA.